Team

Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation

As the CEO of NASSCOM Foundation, the social development arm of the Indian IT-BPM industry body – NASSCOM, Shrikant is leading the technology for good movement in the country.

Through his unique perspective and diverse and rich experience spanning over 28 years, he has taken NASSCOM Foundation to newer heights and helped it create much larger impact. His involvement in the gamut of programs also gives him a chance to interact with numerous NGOs, leaders from the CSR space, policy makers from across the government, youth innovators and early stage social start-ups.

Shrikant has also been championing the cause of collaborative CSR, where corporates can join hands for a common cause, with government and non-government entities to solve social issues and create large scale impact.

As a respected leader in the space, Shrikant serves as a member of the technology advisory group for ‘Girls in IT’, and in also a part of the working group of ‘Technology Development for Indian Languages Program’ run by the Government of India He is also the head for the strategy group for Pro-Bono Volunteering at CII’s India@75 initiative.

Earlier in his career, Shrikant has played a pivotal role in the success of APTECH both in India as well as in Latin America & the Middle East. Prior to joining NASSCOM Foundation, he was based out of Malaysia, working as Head Corporate learning, APAC and MENA, at GlobalNxt University (formerly U21Global), an Online Graduate School, helping thousands of people working in corporates across the Asia-pacific, Middle-east and North African regions with limited or no access to good quality academic opportunities.

Shubhangi Sharma, Executive Director

Dr. Shubhangi Sharma joined IPLM as the Executive Director. She has rich experience in program management, partnership development, policy advocacy and knowledge management focusing on education and gender equity. She has extensive exposure in the field of organizational development and systems reforms processes and has written gender policies, perspective plans; developed Program Management tools, gender and equity lights to assess potential partner organizations using gender and equity lenses. A passionate advocate for equity and inclusion in all walks of life Shubhangi believes in strong community engagement and people’s partnership in development endeavors.

Over the years she has worked with policy-makers, networks and campaigns, civil society and academia in urban and rural contexts. Her background in academia, research, campaign, media, management and networking has given her a sound understanding of the social-political issues affecting governance and developmental agenda at both regional and global levels. Moving on from leadership roles in organizations directly involved in field implementation she has worked with international organizations, UN, corporate foundations and bilateral setups. With a focus on education, women’s empowerment and gender equity she has worked on leadership positions with organizations such as OXFAM Trust, DoosraDashak, Foundation for Education & Development, Reliance Foundation and as technical expert with DFID INDIA, UNESCO, UNDP and Education Above All Foundation, Doha. She has been a member of the joint review missions along with government counterparts, led on evaluations and has engaged with highly credible and globally acclaimed educational initiatives such as LokJumbish, DoosraDashak, Shikshakarmi and MahilaSamakhya in various capacities. In initial part of her professional career she has played important role in setting up new innovative initiatives such as Libraries cum Learning Centers, Science and Communication Centers and leading teams to manage those successfully.

In addition to working in India she has been a consultant to several countries including Lao PDR, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan and has reviewed and evaluated large programs such as English in Action in Bangladesh, Pratham in India, Gender Audit of DDA project in Lao PDR etc. Educationally Dr. Shubhangi holds doctoral degree in Economic Administration and Financial Management and a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication in addition to two years’ of study of Russian language during the course of her academics.

Vignesh Sornamohan, Head - New Services and Knowledge Management

Vignesh has more than thirteen (13) years of research, development and program management experience in the domains of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D), e-Governance, social entrepreneurship, public policy, education, health, and rural development.

Vignesh was the Content Editor of i4d, e-gov and telecentre magazines. He managed the theme selection, research, content collation, writing articles and editorial, and packaged using the Instructional Design theories. Earlier to this, he worked in an IDRC, Microsoft and SDC supported program - telecentre.org, from August 2007 to March 2009. At telecentre.org, he was the Community Facilitator – Asia. He was responsible for managing the Asian telecentre networks, documenting community of practices, promoting knowledge exchange and policy advocacy in the Asian countries.

Vandna Mathur, Head – Partnerships and Alliances

Vandna Mathur has 16 years of experience in education, telecom and hospitality sector on conceptualizing and developing the revenue strategy for the organisation, and working across all sectors with Bureaucratic set up, Non-Profits, Corporations, Multilateral Agencies, and Governments contributing towards financial sustainability of the program.

A graduate from Delhi University from Daulat Ram College, before Joining IPLM, she was working with Bharti Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of the Bharti Enterprises as Head for Partnerships and Alliances to Contribute towards financial sustainability of the program by engaging with various stakeholders to fulfil the financial commitment towards the Satya Bharti School Program.

She is also a co-founder of Life Skills Development Consultancy. The firm was founded with a focus on promoting Information, Functional and Digital literacy by creating new e-libraries and Knowledge Centres in rural/urban India under its flagship program “Gyan Abhiyan – a knowledge movement.

Her core expertise lies in Social Development Consulting, CSR consulting, Business Development and Business Networking.The other organisations worked and associated with are Pearson Education, Accor group of hotels and Vodafone.

Having a small family of one daughter and husband, her personal interests are socialising with friends and spending time being active outdoors. Getting people to laugh and be happy is an incredible passion of her.

Ajaz, Senior Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation

Ajaz Lone joined IPLM Secretariat as the Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist. Ajaz, for about nine years had worked with organizations like Mercy Corps, BASIX and recently with Breakthrough as an M&E Manager. During these associations, he had been closely working on design of baseline, midterm and endline surveys, use of RCT methodology for impact evaluations, design of M&E frameworks, methods and processes, use of mobile app for data collection, performance measurement matrix for work done using social media platforms, IVRS, You Tube. The other key innovations he had been part of include use of Google maps for projecting progress of outcomes, Dashboards for real-time data dissemination among project teams, WhatsApp for evidence building and cloud database management. While working with Breakthrough, he has been a member of South-Asia community of evaluators as part of M&E consortium. During his earlier tenure with Mercy Corps, he has worked as DM&E Community of Practice, involved in design of M&E tools, methods and a DM&E guide as reference document rolled out agency wide. Other than core M&E skills, he has experienced use of MSC video methodology, internalizing accountability practices as part of data collection, use of lessons learned and feedback mechanisms to improve overall program quality. As an M&E catalyst, he worked closely with M&E colleagues of Mercy Corps and in BASIX towards creating a measurement framework for organization’s overall vision and mission. As a standing team member, he was associated with ECB project (in Indonesia) – consortia of six organizations (Oxfam, Care, Save the Children, World Vision, Mercy Corps, CRS) aimed to improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of the humanitarian community in saving lives, improving welfare, and protecting the rights of people in emergency situations.

As part of initial assignments, he has supervised the Kashmir division team in the preparation of first State Human Development report for Jammu and Kashmir. He has completed Masters in Economics from Kashmir University and has also worked as a book review Editor with Peace Studies Journal – a project of central New York Peace studies consortium. As a development practitioner and as part of voluntary services, he has been involved in local orphanages as a career/education counselor and provides counseling to the conflict hit orphans.

Aparajita Ray, Communication and Advocacy Specialist

Aparajita Ray has joined IPLM Secretariat as Advocacy and Communication Specialist.

Aparajita has more than 20 years of rich blend of experience of working in the corporate as well as in the development sector. She brings with her expertise and experience of working in the field of communication and programme management.

She has worked with the best advertising agencies of the world like the Ogilvy and Mudra and has been a part of creating some of the most successful brands. Her association with the development sector is also equally rich she has worked with UNHCR in creating enabling environment for the refugees in India and with NACO (Ministry of Health and family welfare) for the betterment and up-liftmen of the PLHIV (people living with AIDS) in India. Aparajita would be responsible for building the profile of Indian Public Library Movement (IPLM) across the country actively working with implementing partners, government and corporate counterparts and larger set of library movement stakeholders.

Hammad Abedin, Programme Manager

Hammad is a Lebanese name which means the one who praises God. He has two years of work experience in the non-profit sector and four years of work experience in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce followed by Master’s in Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India. Backed by two promotions, he is now working as a Program Manager at NASSCOM Foundation’s initiative – Indian Public Library Movement, supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF),along with several State Governments, education departments and Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for Public Library Development in India. He has also worked on IT Companies and Central Government supported 'National Digital Literacy Mission’ in which he helped improve digital literacy of under privileged population from urban slums across the country.

Hammad has also worked on 'Skills Initiative’ for training and providing job opportunities to youth in India. Previously, he worked with a community based organisation to advance basic human rights of homeless population in Central Delhi. Prior to that, Hammad worked in one of the most rural areas of India with KAARAK for over a year on social research and livelihoods generation. He did his internship with three non-profit organizations in Delhi, namely, Salaam Balak Trust for securing child rights; Pradan where he actively worked for value chain analysis; and Pratidhi for child rescue and rehabilitation. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination and implementation skills. Hammad enjoys focusing on the topics of education and livelihood generation and has a strong passion for youth and women empowerment.

Shipra Sharma, Research and Documentation Specialist

Shipra Sharma has more than 20 years of work experience in the academic and development sector, ranging from quantitative and qualitative research and documentation to content development and knowledge management. For the last 11 years, she has been working on research projects dealing with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Development in various areas, such as community development, agriculture, education, health, etc. through public access spaces, such as telecentres or information kiosks.

During her professional career, she has worked on research projects for various national and international organizations and academic institutions, such as: Indian Council of Historical Research; Department of Social Work, Delhi University; Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University; One World South Asia, Delhi; MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai; International Development Research Centre (IDRC), SARO, Delhi; Africa Commons, Johannesburg, South Africa; Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies, India; Telecentre.org Foundation, Manila, Philippines; and Firetail’s Agricultural Learning and Impacts Network (ALINe) initiative, UK.

Her multi-tasking assignments included managing the publication of telecentre magazine produced by Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies, India, and telecentre.org (a project of IDRC, SARO, Delhi); and curriculum development on Grassroots Communication, Community Media and Social Entrepreneurship for IGNOU’s Certificate Course in Telecentre/Village Knowledge Centre Management supported by IDRC, SARO, Delhi. She holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics and M. Phil. in Political Science from Delhi University. She was awarded the Junior/Senior Research Fellowship after qualifying University Grants Commission’s National Eligibility Test (UGC NET).

Shradha Roy (Partnerships and Alliances)

Dr. Shradha Roy has been a part of IPLM since January 2017. She has done her PhD in the field of Plant Molecular genetics from Graduate School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Tokyo in Feb. 2011. Post studies she continued her career as a researcher for 3 years and has worked in School of life Sciences, JNU and National Institute of Plant Genome Research, an autonomous organization under Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi. Her 6 years of research career in the field of Science and technology has been accomplished with descent achievements which includes 24 patents accepted in International Genome Database, NCBI and 4 research articles in international peer reviewed journal. She also managed to publish her latest work in Nature Scientific report, a popular and highly cited publication in the field of science by Natures group. She is groomed as a professional in the fields of project management, R&D, training and guidance support to doctorate students and writing articles with time and experience working both nationally and internationally.

Apart from her qualification, she has been nominated by MHRD, Govt. of India for international fellowship in the field of Biotechnology and has received the scholarship from MEXT (Ministry of education, sports and culture), Govt. of Japan to pursue her PhD. Being a NET qualified in the field of Agricultural Biotechnology for lectureship by Agriculture Scientist Recruit board, ICAR, is also an active reviewer of the journal “Natural Resources” for her field.

In IPLM, as part of the partnership and alliance team, Shradha looks after the entire volunteer program, the domain of client servicing and also Delhi partnership. As a coordinator for the volunteer’s program for IPLM, she will be engaged in creating pool of the volunteers from across various background to contribute to the field of public libraries and also in development of various programs for volunteer’s engagement including Reading for all Campaign of IPLM.

Although coming from a science and technology background, she is keen in making her personal interest for social change as her professional goal and dedicated to achieve the same.

Sulabh Uttam, Program In-charge (Logistics & Procurement)

Sulabh has joined IPLM as the Program In-charge for logistics & procurement, and finance coordination & communication from April 2017. He is an IT graduate and has completed his B.Tech. Having worked in the technology sector, Sulabh comes with a good background and knowledge on technology. After completing his Masters in Marketing & Sales, he had been promoting products & services like ERP, CRM, Telephony solutions, Customized IT Solutions & Mobile Apps etc. Professionally He has been doing Business Development for around 6+ years during which he also got the opportunity to explore the international market in Abu Dhabi-UAE & Colombo-Sri Lanka. This he considers as his great plus point to work with different mindset people & work culture at the same time.

His profile constitutes of running national & international campaigns for product Introduction & Promotion, giving Sales presentations, Project cost negotiation, priority market selections for sales objectives all while developing strong relationships with the business associates & vendors and consulting them for the best optimum solution.

As part of IPLM, NASSCOM Foundation Sulabh is looking forward to understand how the root level issues are dealt with and what are the challenges one can face while working with the diversity of the India community.

Apart from being a young promising professional Sulabh is a good singer with a melodious voice!